TV-Only Fools and Horses, the famous chandelier sequence was perfectly set up and David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst were told not to react to what was going to happen otherwise it would ruin the final shot. However, out of the corner of his eye Lyndhurst caught sight of the director's shoulders going up and down as he fought to contain his laughter. The idea came from John Sullivan from an incident that happened to his father.
Another sequence, the briliantly funny falling through the hatch with DelBoy in a wine bar with a drink in his hand was expertly timed by Jason who as a younger man done all his own stunts for programmes like A Sharp Intake of Breath and as the bungling detective in The Secret Life of Edgar Briggs - he says he was inspired by Jacques Clouseau played by Peter Sellers in the early Pink Panther films.
Actor John Malkovich wasn’t first choice to play Cyrus The Virus in the movie Con Air other actors like Gary Oldman, Tim Robbins, Ed Harris, William Hurt and Kevin Bacon were considered for the part.
Television: It is often quoted but completely false. David Coleman, doyen of BBC athletics(and a colleague of my father) NEVER said "remarkable" although it is attributed to him, it was actually comic actor and former impressionist Chris Barrie(Arnold Rimmer in Red Dwarf) who said that in the Spitting Image puppet series of the 1980's as well as when he did that voice for BBC Radio comedy 'Son of Cliché' on Radio 4. Incidentally that was the genesis of Red Dwarf as well when it was called 'Dave Hollins-Space Cadet with Barrie, Nick Maloney and Nick Wilton played various roles (written by Red Dwarf creators Rob Grant & Doug Naylor) Dave Hollins eventually became Dave Lister, space bum.!
Another quote often mistaken for being real was Barry Norman, the late host of the FILM series who is supposed to have said "...And why not?" after some sentences. It propelled Norman to stardom but it was really the work of ace impressionist Rory Bremner who did a spot-on impersonation of him. Eric Idle of Monty Python fame did an impression of Barry in the 70's as well and they once appeared with each other.
The most famous was Michael Caine's "...and not a lot of people know that" but that wasn't him, that was down to British comedian and actor Peter Sellers who had an answering service and left that message on it. Peter also used to do an impression of Caine, so that is how most people thought it was Caine who had said it.
Couple of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory facts.
Julie Dawn Cole who played Veruca Salt in the film version 1971, was told to be very careful when she stood on the padded trapdoor at the end of her musical sequence. She had to stand directly in the middle of the trapdoor which would open and not put her head back or lean forward incase she got hurt. For her own safety the whole song sequence was shot once but she nailed it on the first take.
Julie also recently made a confession in the Channel 5 series 'Wonderful World of Chocolate' that she as a child didn't like chocolate and one of the sequences of the film has her picking up a ball, breaking it open and scooping and eating out what was inside-she said she hated it but the director said look as though you really love it.
She brought out some items she had kept from the film including a Golden ticket and an original WONKA chocolate bar(complete) and a valuer reckoned it was worth £20,000!
The bit in the film when Wonka(Gene Wilder) opens the door to the chocolate room and the cast look amazed was real. The director deliberately kept them in the dark right up to the last moment and so when you see their looks of amazement it is genuine surprise.
In the original draft for the book of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, author Roald Dahl created a character called Miranda Piker but was forced to leave her out of the finished story.
The great chocolate river on the sound stage was anything but great to the actor that played Augustus Gloop who in the story is scooping handfuls of creamy chocolate into his mouth and then falls in, only to be sucked into a giant pipe. He said it was awful, stinky and horrible chocolate water. It has been left around for 3 weeks and some people had thrown their coffee dregs into it.
The Dahl family were less than enamoured with the film with Roald saying he hated it.
gene wilder LEGEND AND ALLROUND WISE ASS
The Goonies
The Astoria police chief accuses Chuck of making a prank call about “all those little creatures that multiply whoever you throw water at them” is a reference to Gremlins which was also produced by Steven Spielberg and starred Corey Feldman.
The Phil Silvers Show or BILKO as it was mostly known had an episode where a chimp is accidentally drafted into the Army. The chimp upstaged Phil Silvers but in a brilliant piece of ad-libbing he saved a scene where the chimp(Private Harry Speakup) picks up a telephone. Quick as a flash Silvers says "Oh hang sir, I think he is calling his lawyer!"
Cartoon characters Hokey Wolf and Top Cat(both by Hanna-Barbera) were based on the Phil Silvers' character because they both were con artists and talked fast to confuse people.
TV: Did you know that the voice of Churchill the dog in the insurance adverts was provided by comedian Bob Mortimer(one half of Reeves and Mortimer) and that the actual head of the dog wasn't real(the body was) and they used CGI to create it so it could do different looks and mannerisms. Bob had to do numerous lines of "Oh, yes!" in different styles too.
Roger Moore designed the clothes he wore for his series 'The Persuaders', as his character Brent Sinclair opposite Tony Curtis as US financier, Danny Wilde. Gowns the women wore in the series were designed by Debenhams, which was once one of the biggest department stores, although it still exists today but was saved from extinction earlier this year.
Actor Tom Welling was approached to play Clark Kent/Superman in Superman Returns but declined due to his comment to the show Smallville.
Old time Superman actor George Reeves used to lie on a piece of glass on a trolley and then they would superimpose the background of a city and show him 'flying' in the air. In the third Superman film Christopher Reeve's Superman turns bad and he added a line when a kid asks for his autograph " if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me that" this echoed real,life when fans would keep asking for autographs.